27 July 2005 -- The leader of Bulgaria's Socialist Party, Sergey Stanishev, managed a narrow majority vote in parliament today to become the country's new prime minister.

A reported 120 parliamentarians voted in favor of Stanishev, while 119 voted against him. In a separate vote later today, legislators were also to approve Stanishev's cabinet, drawn up in a coalition with a mainly ethnic Turkish party.

The ex-communist Socialist Party received the most votes in the 25 June election. Coalition talks with the incumbent centrists led by the previous prime minister, the former king Simeon, collapsed last week.